[Tfug] Machine Rehabilitation

[Bexley Hall]

Hi, Henry,

--- "hharden71 at netzero.net" <hharden71 at netzero.net>
wrote:

> I want to try and breathe new life into a machine I
> have been given.
> An old IBM Aptiva
> 450 Mhz AMD
> 128 Megs ram 
> (I don't know if this can be upgraded-2 memory slots
> ea/w 64m currently)

<snip>  Before you spend much time on this, check the
electrolytic caps (look like small beer cans) on the
motherboard.  Aptivas had problems with a bad cap
supplier (IBM would replace the MB but I am not
sure *you* have that option).

*Physical* symptoms will be a slight *bulge* in the
top of the device (it should otherwise be *flat*).
You may also notice some brownish staining on the
top or around the bottom where the cap sits on the
PCB.  This is "leaked electrolyte".

The *performance* symptoms will be quite random
if/when they develop.  You may get unexplained
crashes, may lose the ability to access the disk
drive "at speed", etc.  I had one machine that
would not let me *install* Windows (98SE, IIRC)
but, would *run* an installed copy apparently
flawlessly (something about the amount of IDE 
activity on the disk+CDROM interface would
put enough stress on the supply decoupling that
the processor would reliably crash).

YMMV,

HTH,
--don


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